Daily Devotional with Oswald ChambersBased on the Book: 'My Utmost For His Highest' (The
Golden Book of Oswald Chambers,1935) by Oswald Chambers

What’s Next To Do?

"If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" - John 13:17

Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines
that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send
you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on
the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you
believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just
inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out
past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for
yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment.

When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know
more. Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest
spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do
something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be
no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a
time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually
self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and
knowing more.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own
opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken
for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your
spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to
fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to
perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice
. . .” ( 1 Samuel 15:22 ). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you
once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If
anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” ( John 7:17 ).